Herculean Task
by Superficial Faith
Summary: In a time where dhampirs are being rounded up and sent to confinement, one man, with the help of a child, may be able to put a stop to the torture and prejudice of those born of Noble blood. ON HIATUS.
1. Task I

**Disclaimer: Vampire Hunter D belongs to its respective creator and companies. No copyright infringement is intended.**

"_Who knows what true loneliness is—not the conventional word but the naked terror? To the lonely themselves it wears a mask. The most miserable outcast hugs some memory or some illusion."_

-Joseph Conrad

**I**

The sun was beating down on the Frontier plains, baking what little mud was left from the rain the night before. It was reaching midday, and the sun was at its peak, making even the earth seemingly sweat from the scorching heat. It was this fact that allowed only the toughest of people to travel in these harsh conditions, causing many people to do their traveling early in the day. Frontier summers were far from pleasant. And yet, even though this was the norm, today was somewhat unusual.

A boy of about twelve ran at a frantic pace while his lungs screamed for air, kicking up small clouds of dust as his feet pounded the hard earth. No more than ten feet away from him was a mob of townspeople armed with flaming torches and wooden stakes throwing stones in his wake. In his haste, the scarf covering the boy's nose and mouth was lost, streaming out behind him like a colorful banner, exposing what had caused such a commotion. Approximately three centimeters above his right collarbone was the identification number VB 005.

The boy was a dhampir.

Due to the Dhampir Branding Act imposed in AD 12,097 by a Noble-hating official, all dhampirs were required by law to be tattooed with an identification number once they reached the age of three. The human parent of the half-breed child was then prompted to record the details of the parental side that contained the Noble blood. This information was forwarded to the Capital where it was filed in the main Dhampir Registry which was kept under lock and key. As such, dhampirs were now easier to identify and were normally driven out of the town where they were now unwelcome. The act accomplished what it was supposed to do—to make the lives of dhampirs miserable.

The boy ran on.

**II**

A lone horse and rider rose over the crest of the surmounting hill. The rider was swathed entirely in black and a wide-brimmed traveler's hat shielded his eyes from the glaring onslaught of the sun. The man possessed a beauty almost otherworldly in its nature and the sight alone was enough to make both women and men swoon. Despite this, though, an unearthly aura radiated off of him, perfecting his image of grace yet sowed the seeds of terror to all who were near it—a pristine gem that one could only look at but not touch.

This man was also a dhampir. The Capital only knew him as VB 001, consequently making him the first one added to the registry. However, to those who had heard the stories that were constantly whispered throughout the Frontier's taverns, he was known as the Vampire Hunter D.

He was highly spoken of among other Hunters, praising him for his ability to complete any task assigned to him and the speed of which he worked. More than anything, though, he was known for being immovable, and that trait alone is what made him so fearsome.

D suddenly pulled back on the horse's reins. About two kilometers away, he had caught the sounds of angry shouting and verbal abuse—a kind that he knew all too well. It was clear that the shouts belonged to a disgruntled mob that was chasing a dhampir out of their beloved home. Giving his horse a nudge in the sides, he pressed on, but halted yet again.

A boy of about twelve was approaching him with a seemingly ungodly speed for such short legs.

While enhanced speed wasn't an unusual feature for a dhampir, there was something about this young one that seemed somewhat out of place. D had sensed an aura about the boy that hinted that whichever parent contained the blood of the Nobility was a strong one.

Dismounting, the Hunter stuck out an arm, catching the fleeing boy square in the chest, barring his advance any further. The younger dhampir clearly didn't appreciate this at all as he promptly began to struggle against the Hunter's strong grip. Realizing that this was having no effect whatsoever, the boy provided resistance that only those who sprung from the Nobility could do—he sunk his fangs into D's arm.

The Hunter didn't move.

Raising his head to face the pursing mob, he said but one word: "Leave."

The crowd halted as pure animalistic terror washed over them.

"Leave," the Hunter said again, and even though his voice was softer than it had previously been, it carried an air about it that had no tolerance for disobedience. As such, the person at the head of the mob turned tail and ran, heartlessly leaving his cohorts behind to follow in his wake. After watching the backs of the retreating townspeople shrinking into the distance, D turned his eyes back on the boy still latched onto his now thoroughly blood-soaked arm.

"Let go." The command was soft like the order he had given the rioting group, but whether the boy realized there was no threat behind it, unlike the one before, would remain a mystery.

The child seemed to hesitate for an instant before slackening his jaw and extracting his fangs. As he stood there with his face hidden by the tattered black cap he wore, the boy spoke for the first time: "Let me pass."

The boy's voice was soft as well, almost rusted in sound, and yet it still had a rough quality to it, almost as if speaking caused him pain. There was no hint of a childish and playful soul left in this young boy. He had lived a hard life and had experienced too much than one his age should have.

"Half your vocal cords were torn out, weren't they?"

The boy jolted at the question the Hunter had directed towards him. It was apparent that the question had been unexpected and judging by the boy's reaction, D had hit the answer right on the mark. Still, the boy did not respond. Suddenly, without any warning at all, the boy fell to his knees and retched violently, avoiding the Hunter's boots by mere inches. His condition became apparent—Sunlight Syndrome. As the Hunter reached for the boy, presumably to push his hair out of his face to keep him from choking on his own vomit, three words tumbled forth from the boy's mouth in what sounded like a moan of pain: "Don't touch me."

It was amazing that such a small boy could put so much malice into his voice, and one could only wonder where he kept it all. If these words had ruffled D in some way, he didn't show it. There was suddenly the muffled sound of a blow to the gut, followed by a soft thud. The Hunter had knocked the child out.

A crude voice from nowhere in particular addressed the Hunter.

"Oh yes, his father's a strong one all right," the voice said before entering a round of chuckles.

"You know something, don't you?" D asked, addressing the unseen presence.

"I might," the voice replied mockingly, "but deep down you already know what that something is."

D suddenly clenched his left hand into a tight fist, blood dripping from between his fingers from where his nails had dug into his skin. And yet, one could only wonder what had provoked such an emotion from the normally cold and stoic youth.

**III**

"Well, I don't quite know what you need this information for, but here's the copy of the file you requested," the Sheriff said, handing D a thin leaflet of papers.

D, after hitching his horse to a tree in a nearby forest where he had buried the boy neck down in soil, had made a small detour to the Capital to pick up a specific dhampir registration file. Watching as the Hunter flicked through the pages of scant information, the Sheriff continued, "You know, we've had quite a few problems with that specific dhampir in the past and it doesn't help that the surrounding villages have started to panic upon hearing that he escaped from the internment camp earlier this month. You haven't happened to see him around these parts, have you?"

D stared at a specific page contained in the file for a few seconds before promptly snapping its covers shut.

"No, I haven't seen him," he told the Sheriff plainly before placing the file back down on the Sheriff's desk and heading towards the door. "If I do happen to cross paths with him, you'll be the first to know."

The Sheriff never saw the troubled look in the youth's eyes as he watched the Hunter disappear with a sweep of his long black coat. On his desk lay the folder left open at a certain page. At the top was what had caused the Hunter to hesitate in answering the Sheriff's question: _Daniel Samuel Lang (VB 005)_.

**IV**

The boy awoke with a jolt at the sound of a fire crackling.

"You're awake," a voice to his left stated. Turning his head to the source of the noise the voice spoke once more. "Don't move. You'll make yourself sick again."

Inside his heart of hearts, the boy was afraid. He had no idea where he was or who he was with. While he recognized the voice as the man who had blocked his retreat only a few hours before, his identity still remained a mystery.

"Hit the ground with your foot," the boy said weakly, turning his face back up towards the sky.

The Hunter didn't so much as raise an eyebrow at this odd request and sharply gave the hard earth a good smack with the heel of his boot. Watching the young boy's silent face for a moment or two, D addressed the boy once more.

"You're blind, aren't you?"

While the boy knew that the Hunter's words were phrased as a question that didn't really merit an answer, the boy paused before rasping, "Yes. Without vibrations, I'm left in a dark far worse than the kind of darkness caused by the blanket of nightfall."

There was another long pause as the two dhampirs listened to the song of the wind that was blowing across the trees' foliage.

"Were your parents chased out of their home as well?"

The boy didn't even look at D as he answered. "No. My father left before I was born and my mother…" The boy broke off there before swallowing thickly and continued. "My mother was killed and…and I…and I was the cause of it all…"

D suddenly caught the faint scent of salt. The boy, while his voice didn't reveal it, was crying.

"It was an accident, of course," the boy explained, "but all the same, I was still the one responsible… As punishment, I blinded myself with a silver knife so my vision would never return, serving as a constant reminder of how I was left in the dark when I murdered my own mother…" The boy broke off once again and D didn't press the matter any further. Instead, strangely, a small smile twitched at the corner of the Hunter's lips.

"Your mother was a very strong person."

"From what Mother told me, so was my father."

D shook his head, even though the boy couldn't see it.

"No," he answered softly. "Your father was very weak—both a coward and a fool."

"How would you know?" the child bit back sharply. The boy was frustrated. He could sense the conversation leading somewhere, but couldn't quite wrap his mind around what.

"Because you're talking to him."

After struggling within himself for a few beats, the boy spat words dripping with venom at his father. "So Mother was just some plaything to you—just a convenient way to pass the time?" D could sense the boy's fists tightening beneath the earth.

"No. Things weren't supposed to end up this way," the Hunter replied.

"So I was unwanted then—a mistake?"

"Not unwanted," D's voice was a whisper now, "just unexpected."

A very pregnant and uncomfortable silence fell over the two.

"You know," the boy began, listening to the earth crumble in on itself as he gently lifted himself up out of the hole, "with the way Mother spoke about you, I always envisioned you as some god-like figure." The boy chuckled lightly. "I was only four then, so I was pretty naïve. As time went by, however, I grew to hate you, even though I never showed it to Mother. How could I love a father who was never there? It was then I realized that not all children are born through mutual love."

"Is that what you think?" The reply that reached the boy's ears was totally unexpected. "Do you really think I would take such a risk with your mother if the feeling wasn't mutual?"

The boy turned to face D.

"What do you mean?"

There was a pause in the Hunter's answer before he replied with some difficulty, "I…was not born through either one-sided or mutual love. I…know all too well what loneliness is…" He hesitated for the slightest fraction of a second before he continued in a voice that was tinged with sorrow. "I was just…an experiment." The tone of finality in his voice told the boy that there were to be no more questions concerning the matter. "There's much of your mother in you…though knowing her, she probably said the opposite." A smile twitched at the corners of his lips.

The boy didn't know what to say.

Presently, the sound of running footsteps reached their ears.

"Well, well," a voice originating from D's left hand began wryly, "it seems the Capital's Youth Brigade has come to call." The Hunter heard the boy give off a long sigh and mutter something that sounded like "here we go again" from behind.

The Youth Brigade was only ten meters away now, and the boy caught the whine of a sword leaving its sheath.

"Stay your hand," the boy said, addressing the Hunter. "This fight is mine and mine alone."

D gazed at the young dhampir for a moment before quietly retreating into the encroaching shadows that had followed in the heels of the setting sun. He didn't return the sword to the scabbard on his back.

"Watch him, D," his left hand warned. "The boy's biorhythms are currently in a very unstable state. He might lose control."

D said nothing, but watched silently as the three boys that made up this squad's Youth Brigade halted less than three feet from the child.

"Dhampir VB 005, you've given us quite the runaround lately. We thought you had learned your lesson by now considering what my father did to you," the tallest boy, who was obviously the leader of bunch, said. The dhampir unconsciously raised his hand to his throat, but said nothing. "We're going to teach you real good this time."

The smallest hint of unrest showed in D's eyes as the three boys leveled their stake guns at their opponent's chest. At that distance, one well-aimed shot would mean instant death.

"My name's Daniel," the boy suddenly said and then raised his head to meet the other boy at eye level. "I am not a number."

"What's it matter?" the boy to the group's left said. "All you half-breed bastards are the same to us! We're gonna' take care of you right now, the same way we did your friend and her ma."

Daniel jolted at exactly the same moment D's eyes flicked to the trio. His right hand clenched his sword tightly as both of Daniel's curled into fists.

"How could you?" the boy ground out. "What did Tae and her daughter ever do to you? How _could_ you?"

Did the boys notice how Daniel's eyes had taken on a faint blood-red hue?

He took a step forward.

"D-Don't move!" the first boy said, his voice reaching an almost hysterical pitch. "Take another step and I'll shoot it, I swear!"

Daniel took another step forward as he said, "Do it. I _dare_ you."

Just as the boy was about to pull the trigger and carry through with his threat, a flash of light suddenly sliced through the barrel of the gun, rendering the weapon totally useless. Not knowing when it had happened, the boy found himself lifted effortlessly into the air by the front of his shirt and pinned against the nearest tree trunk. D had intervened, but it wasn't in his usual display of frozen calm. The cool exterior of the Hunter had cracked and fallen away, revealing white-hot rage that rarely had been seen before.

"Leave…now." D's words came out as just a hiss. "You've taken both a sibling and a friend away, the former of which who wasn't even four." The boy was paralyzed by fear from both the Hunter's words and the sight of a pair of fangs poking through the corners of his lips. "Now you're trying to take away a son as well. _How much more pain and hatred do you think we need?_" He released the boy who fell to the ground in a heap. "Leave this place. If we meet again, I'll send you straight to Hell where you belong. _Now go!_"

The three boys scrambled to be the first ones to leave the Hunter's line of sight, stumbling over each other in their haste.

"Nice going, D," the voice from D's palm said, snickering. "Not only did you to scare the shit out of those punks, you managed to drive off your son as well."

D turned around. In the heat of the Hunter's tirade, the boy had run off somewhere, and was now nowhere to be found.

**V**

Red. That was all Daniel saw in the recesses of his mind as he ran through the thick forest at a feverish pace. He had to get away.

Daniel wasn't quite sure himself what had provoked the change in him, but one moment he was just letting the news of the death of Tae and her daughter sink into his mind, and then the next he just had the overwhelming urge to slaughter everything in his wake. The feeling wasn't new to him, but never had it pulled so strongly before. He kept his thirst well-hidden, but this was the first time he had almost carried through with it.

_Blood_, his brain screamed at him. _Blood!_

He couldn't hold it in anymore.

Skidding to a stop on his knees, causing the earth to scatter around him, Daniel clamped his jaws onto his wrist, relishing the feel of his fangs sinking into his near translucent flesh.

_No_, his heart screamed at him. _No, this can't be happening! This is the exact same thing that caused Mother's death! Don't do this! Let go!_

His mind didn't listen, even though he knew that the false circulation of his own blood couldn't contain him for very long.

_No, stop it! Don't give in to your other side! Don't show what you are!_

Tears slid down his face of their own accord.

Suddenly, even though his whole being raged against it, his wrist was sharply yanked out of his mouth, a long horizontal tear forming across it where he hadn't yet let go.

"No!" he screamed, trying to free his wrist from his captor's grip. "No, please! What have I done? What kind of monster have I become? Please—" A cold hand clamped over Daniel's mouth, abruptly cutting off his incessant protests.

"Daniel, listen to me," an expressionless voice said, which, even through his muddled and hysteria-ridden senses, Daniel recognized as his father's.

A muffled scream of agony fell from the mouth beneath the Hunter's hand before the boy sharply sank his teeth into D's finger. Even as he felt the strong pull of the boy sucking his blood in a desperate way, D didn't move.

"Daniel," he said again, the voice coming forth from his lips now frostily-cold. It carried a tone that, while not rough, pierced the depths of the young dhampir's mind, causing him to momentarily stop his feeding due to sheer terror. "In order for me to help you, you need to let go of my finger first." Veiled beneath the seemingly sounding request, the order was clear and warned the boy that the word "no" would not be taken for an answer.

As soon as his hand was free, D nonchalantly raised his injured finger to his lips and deftly stuck the finger in his mouth where it stayed for a few seconds before D reached into his saddlebags behind him and pulled out a small container of red pills. Unscrewing the cap, he shook two of the pills into his hand and extended them toward Daniel.

"Take these," the Hunter said, snapping his fingers belonging to the hand that was proffered to the boy. To an outsider, the action might have been considered impatient and even rude, but what the Hunter was actually doing was just causing a vibration in the air so his son could "see" what and where the objects held in his hand were.

"What are they?" the boy asked quietly, holding his bloodied wrist.

"Blood pills," D replied, his answer short and to the point. "These things aren't cheap nor are they easy to come by, so I expect you to take the whole of what I offer you. While they won't rid you of your bloodlust completely, they will take the edge off it."

Tipping the two pills into the hand Daniel had silently outstretched, D watched as the young boy swallowed them with a pained grimace.

After a few moments, Daniel rasped: "Why?"

"Why what?" came the reply from the Hunter.

"Why was I born? Why am I here? Why am I this way?"

"Tough questions." D paused for a moment before he continued, "You were born through reasons I have yet to understand myself, but it is a constant in this world that everyone is put on this earth with a purpose to fulfill; yours just hasn't come to light yet. That is all I can give you right now."

"Then what is your purpose?" Daniel asked, obviously not satisfied with his father's answer. "Why were you put on this earth?"

"I do not know," D said softly. Was that sadness in his voice? There was another pause before he said, "You hate me for passing on my cursed blood. You hate what you are." It wasn't a question.

Consternation twisted the boy's features before he ordered, "Explain."

"You will never know a normal life, Daniel," D began, his voice barely audible, even without the wind. "While your mother didn't know this, my Noble heritage is not that of a typical dhampir's. Due to that, you will always stand out, no matter how hard you try to hide behind your human side. You will always be alone—that one in one hundred million."

_So you weren't expected…_ The thought, while not spoken, hung suspended in the air between the two, causing the air to become thick with tension which suddenly pulled taut and broke apart.

"That's your excuse?" Daniel said softly; the pent-up rage building behind his words was apparent. "Because you are that one dhampir in one hundred million, you are _fated_ to be alone?" The boy snorted. "Don't make me laugh. You are only alone because you make it that way, distancing yourself from everyone due to the fear that you will eventually outlive them. Is that why you ran away?"

"Daniel…" D's voice, while seemingly unchanged, carried behind it a thinly-veiled threat, giving his son a warning that the conversation was going into uncharted waters. It was clear that he wanted the argument to go no further.

Daniel decided it was best he kept his mouth shut, but even with this action, the Hunter could tell the boy was still seething inside—waves of pure loathing radiating off of him.

Leaning his back against the base of the nearest tree, D slowly closed his eyes, ready to head off for the night. In the depths of his mind, his son's voice could be heard to say: _"Maybe it is we who are the transient guests…"_

**Author's Note: Yes, so here is the re-written version of what was originally entitled "Overcoming the Curse". I'd really appreciate getting some feedback on D's characterization, as his character is largely based off of the novels. I was also trying to achieve a Hideyuki Kikuchi writing style, but I'm not quite sure I pulled it off. As always, please realize this still has typos as my beta-reader hasn't gotten around to proofing it yet.**


	2. Task II

**Disclaimer: Vampire Hunter D belongs to its respective creator and companies. No copyright infringement is intended.**

"_Acceptance is not submission; it is acknowledgment of the facts of a situation. Then deciding what you're going to do about it."_

-Kathleen Casey Theisen

**I**

As soon as the sun had broken over the horizon line, D had swathed Daniel in one of his many scarves with the purpose of hiding the boy's identification number before putting the spurs to his horse. The boy, who was still on tender hooks from the previous night's discussion, reluctantly went with his father, his newly-braided hair playing out lightly in the wind. Besides providing extra security association-wise, much like the Hunter, Daniel cleaned up very nicely.

Now, as they stood in front of a row of approximately twenty cyborg horses, D said in a voice as cold as his frostily gorgeous visage, "Pick one."

The boy bowed his head before saying quietly, "I don't have the money to afford a mount."

"Don't trouble yourself with that," D replied as he turned and rummaged through one of his horse's saddlebags. "I'll pay for it."

"I can't let you do that," Daniel whispered, his eyes now shadowed even further by his cap. "You don't need to waste your money on someone like me."

"As long as you make good use of your mount, it's money well-spent." D's tone didn't invite room for argument.

Daniel, who had perhaps already realized by this point that he had lost the battle before it had even begun, turned around irritably and gave the floor a good hard smack with his boot before walking over to examine his prospective mounts.

Maybe the stable manager had misinterpreted the boy's stomp for one of impatience as he turned to D and wryly informed him, "You know, I have one about the same age and he acts exactly like your little boy. When they hit that age, I swear… Now don't you worry your pretty little head about it, though. It's just a phase. It'll pass over time."

To no surprise, D didn't turn around as he searched inside his next saddlebag and said quietly, but rather bluntly, "He's blind."

"Really?" the stable manger asked with raised eyebrows as he watched Daniel carefully feeling each horse's face before moving on to the next one. "And yet you still let him ride?"

"He has good hearing."

Several moments of silence passed with nothing save the sound of hoofs being shod for comfort before a voice from the far end of the stable asked in a scratchy tone, "Is this the DL46 model?"

D looked up from picking his mount's rear hoof and answered before the dealer could open his mouth, "It is. They're a good model; it's a shame they stopped producing them a good ten years back. They have impeccable strength and stamina, but their trail manners are terrible. Never quite seen one with that coloration, though."

The horse the boy was standing next to was such a light grey that its coat was almost the color of highly-polished silver and was twice the boy's size.

D then turned back to his horse and continued working on picking out a particularly stubborn pebble that had been wedged between the hoof and shoe before asking the stable manager quietly, "How much?"

"Nine-hundred thousand dalas," the man said firmly. "I won't take anything less than that. Not for one of my stable's finest mounts."

Just as D was reaching into his coat pocket to pay the man, a sharp "Don't!" halted his hand. Both the stable manager and Hunter turned to look at the boy.

"Please, don't spend that much on me. I have no way to repay you," Daniel said before digging through his pant's pockets and bringing out a few meager coins. Feeling each one carefully, the boy asked the manager. "How much for your least expensive mount?"

"Twenty-thousand dalas," the manager replied as he watched the boy carefully identify each coin before they were presented to him.

"I'll take it then," Daniel stated. The youth had used whatever life savings he managed to keep on his travels and now with that purchase, only one ten-thousand dala coin remained on his person.

A figure suddenly brushed past him and a few seconds later, there was the rhythmic sound of hoofs walking on the hard cement floor of the stables. The coins that he had just given the stable manager were returned into his hands, and before he could protest, there was the unmistakable clinking of coins and the transaction was over.

As D pressed the reins into the boy's right hand, he said but two words: "We're finished."

**II**

Ahead of them lay vast tracks of barren desert, the sun already beginning to cause the usual scorching heat of summer. The pair of travelers—one out in the sun, the other in total darkness—stood there for a moment, probably listening to the sounds of the wild that only dhampirs alone could hear. The older of the two was the first one to break the silence.

"From here on out, we set out on our own paths," D said, not even turning to face his progeny. "You are free to follow me if you wish or stay here. It matters not." There was a slight pause before he continued, "Whichever path you should choose to take, I wish you the best of luck. Godspeed." And with those final words of parting, D put the spurs to his horse and set out across the plains.

Daniel sat on his horse listening to the receding hoof beats and debated within himself. On the one hand, he still wasn't on the best of terms with his father, nor did he want to be, but on the other, he had no place to go. He was a wanted person—no, _creature_, he reminded himself—and he honestly believed that not one soul would want to help him out.

_"You're father was a good man…"_

Daniel bowed his head once again. If his eyes hadn't been concealed beneath his cap, one could have seen the tears starting to form there.

"Mother…" The words slipped past his lips in a whisper—unbidden.

The sudden stop of iron-shod hooves barely reached the boy's ears. With his well-developed senses, the older dhampir had heard him. But why would this word cause the normally stoic hunter to come to an abrupt halt? Had something slipped through a well-concealed crack in his icy demeanor and reached what was left of his heart? It was the second time he had heard someone call out the word in a tone of regret and sorrow—the second time it had stopped him in his tracks.

The young boy curled his hands into tight fists and was biting down on his bottom lip so hard that he drew blood.

_"Do you really think I would take such a risk with your mother if the feeling wasn't mutual?"_

This statement said only a day before pulled itself free from the boy's tangle of thoughts and lodged itself deeply into his heart. It was at this moment that the boy suddenly dug his heels into his newly-purchased mount and took off at a gallop the way his father had gone, his ears catching the sound of said person dismounting. He ground his teeth together once again.

Before D could even comprehend what was happening, Daniel had pulled a whip from seemingly out of nowhere with lightning speed and had wrapped it around his neck in such a tight binding that even D had to struggle to get air to his lungs. The whip was quite familiar to him, made from tanned werewolf hide and segmented in a way that only the Lang family could accomplish successfully, and yet it seemed that the boy's vampiric strength had a much more profound effect on the Hunter than when a human executed the attack.

Daniel jumped off his horse, which skid to an immediate halt when it realized it was missing its master.

"Why? Why was I allowed to be brought into this world just to suffer? Why did you have to be my father?" The question was the same thing the boy had asked D just the night before, but unlike the whisper Daniel used then, it was now yelled out in an almost hysterical tone, his scratchy voice carrying surprisingly well over the howling desert winds. "Why did you choose my mother?_ Answer me!_"

The Hunter's lips didn't move, nor did his emotionless demeanor quiver in the slightest—and yet—deep in the recesses of his mind, the boy could hear his voice.

_"This isn't what your mother would have wanted…"_

"Shut up!" the boy screamed at the voice, not even bothering to respond with his own telepathy. "Do you know how much she's suffered—how much_I've_ suffered?"

The Hunter reached out his hand towards the boy. Through his rapidly blurring sight, D saw the boy jolt and immediately jerk away from the attempted touch. The look in his eyes was not unlike that of a frightened animal's.

_"Who did it to you, Daniel? Who took away your innocence?"_

Time itself ground to a sudden halt.

_"Who did it, Daniel?"_ the voice asked again, and D felt the boy slacken his hold a little on the whip.

"I…" Daniel began, his words sounding more like something he was trying to expel from his stomach, "I don't know what you're talking about…"

_"You do."_

"You don't know what you're asking… Nothing like that happened to me…"

As D tore the coils from his neck, rendering what was left of the whip totally useless, a hurricane was beginning to form deep inside his chest. This Vampire Hunter—who was known for never showing emotion, for being able to kill in cold blood—was beginning to experience a rage unlike anything he had ever felt before so that even he didn't know what was its cause. Maybe it was because he felt he owed it to his former employer or maybe it was because the boy was in many ways similar to himself.

No, it wasn't any of these. This was the feeling that only a parent could experience—the rage and utter loathing towards the one who had committed one of the cruelest of sins upon his or her child.

Suddenly, without any prior indication at all, two white hands clamped down on the young dhampir's upper arms, their owner shaking him roughly.

"Daniel, who did it to you? Who raped you?" The words came out softly and in a low voice, but it was the white-hot anger and desire for revenge behind them that gave these questions their final touch, causing the boy to a feel a violent shudder of fear wrack his frame. "_Answer me!_"

Something akin to a gagging noise reverberated in the back of the boy's throat. It was a mental struggle between father and son—one fighting off the other's crushing aura. The boy didn't need to see D's eyes giving off a blood-red hue to know his vampiric half was showing. This, the boy knew, was something truly fearsome and not something to be reckoned with, even amongst the strongest of foes.

An invading presence pierced the depths of his mind and began to take a familiar shape. A desperate struggle ensued, but the boy's efforts to repel his father's invading presence were all in vain.

_"No! No one was meant to see this! Get out! I don't want you seeing this!"_

The presence hesitated for the slightest fraction of a second before continuing on further, Daniel's efforts at resistance not disrupting his pace at all.

_"No! Leave me be! You'll think me a monster! Leave me be!"_

A strong gale of wind threatened to upset the Hunter's seemingly leisurely stroll, almost knocking him off his feet. But even this resistance the boy responded with wasn't enough to stop him. D was more experienced, more capable, and much more powerful.

_"GET OUT!"_

The boy provided one last attempt to stop the Hunter's advance, but it was too late—D had already reached the point of no return, flashes of vague images rushing past his eyes.

**III**

D waited in the midst of the blurring scenes. Many images were faceless while others brought those faces into sharp focus. However, everything was soon reduced to fuzzy outlines and then there was nothing at all except complete darkness.

An antagonized scream cut through the black, creating a stream of white light—and then, a voice was heard.

_"Let go of me! Please, no more!"_

The voice sounded hysterical in its pleading, and yet, not a sob could be heard.

_"GET AWAY FROM ME! NO MORE!"_

D's surroundings turned a vivid scarlet and the sounds of ripping and tearing flesh could be heard in conjunction with the psychotic laughter of another voice, but before it had barely even begun, everything became silent save the quiet echo of sobs.

_"No…Not again…I took blood…It doesn't stop…Was it not enough for my thirst to take Mother's blood against her will? Why? I have committed the ultimate sin…once again…"_

Suddenly, the same voice overlapped the previous one.

_"I SAID GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"_

Lightning cracked as a large gust of wind knocked the Hunter off his feet and he was back in the material world, his expression cold and emotionless once more.

Daniel dropped to his knees, breathing heavily, and silence reigned for a few moments before D said with no change in emotion, "You took your mother's blood."

Like so many other statements before, D spoke the truth without questioning it.

The boy raised his head at the sound of his father's rusted voice, his entire body quivering like a leaf. He started to say something, but bit down on his knuckle instead, almost as if forcing something back.

"Was it _him_?"

The boy froze.

"What did _he_ want from you? I can imagine what it was, but I could be wrong."

"I…" Daniel began, "I don't remember…"

"Is it that you don't remember or that you don't _want_ to remember?"

The boy didn't respond.

"_He_ took you in after you blinded yourself, didn't he?"

Daniel gave a silent nod of assent that seemed a bit forced, as if his father's voice commanded it of him.

"What did _he_ promise you if you complied with his wishes?"

Daniel's mouth suddenly became dry.

"I…was a fool," the boy began quietly. "_He_ said that hewas capable of bringing Mother back…and I honestly believed _him_… Never again…"

As he stood up and turned his back to the child, the Hunter said, "Sometimes, it is best to leave those that have died at peace, Daniel. _He_ is living proof of that."

A chuckle erupted from around the vicinity of D's waist. "I'm supposing you didn't mean that as a pun, did you?"

Daniel's ears pricked upwards and he turned his head slightly to the side.

"Who was that?" he asked.

"Nobody important," D replied as he swung himself up into his saddle, his left hand clenched into a tight fist—a muffled sound of protest seemed to be emanating from it.

Presently, the unmistakable sound of hooves on the hard earth reached the boy's ears before there was a pause and the Hunter's voice gave him once last piece of advice before the hoof beats started up again: "Don't let your desire for revenge and your feelings of regret consume you, Daniel. Nothing profitable ever springs from it."

And then the Hunter's presence faded into the distance before it disappeared completely.

**IV**

"So, what do you think _he_ wanted with him?" the same crude voice as before asked.

"Knowing _him_, it's probably another one of his 'tests' for me," D replied tonelessly. "The one who hurt the boy was probably one of _his_ cohorts."

"You worried about him?"

"Is that what you think?"

"What parent_wouldn't_ be worried for his child's safety—but then again, you're not the average parent, now are you?" There was a slight pause before the voice continued, "Think he'll bite? Err…so to speak."

"Yes," D replied, ignoring the last remark, his eyes still trained on the vast expanse of the horizon line ahead of him.

"What makes you so sure?" the voice asked snidely. "He's almost as stubborn as you are and his mother's personality certainly doesn't help ma—" D's answer cut the voice off before it could say any more.

"He'll come."

Something along the lines of "well, you're certainly an arrogant bastard" was heard from D's left hand before silence descended between the two.

Presently, the sound of galloping hoof beats swiftly approaching was heard. D had been right. The boy had decided to come along after all.

As the boy began to pull up beside him, the Hunter glanced at him from the corner of his eye. Daniel's face had become an expression of serene beauty giving anyone who looked upon it the impression of a newly-freed bird that had just been released from its cage.

Daniel, it seemed, was best when he was riding freely out on the plains. He was truly a boy of this day and age on the Frontier.

The two had ridden a good ten miles before the silence was broken.

"Something's after us..." Daniel said softly. "It's coming up from around the north to northwest area of Sector 47B. It doesn't sound human."

"Nicely done," D said, still not bothering to look at the boy as he spoke. Maybe the compliment would have had more effect on the boy if Daniel knew he had just accomplished a small miracle. Still, the Hunter didn't offer any further explanation.

Reaching his right hand towards a saddle bag to the horse's rear, D rummaged through it, his eyes still set on the terrain ahead. After finding what he was looking for, D held it out towards the boy riding alongside of him. There was a snapping noise and Daniel turned his head around. From what Daniel could make of it through the air's vibrations, it was a dagger of some sort inside a plain leather sheath.

"Take it," D said simply, returning his hand back to the loose rein when the weight of the dagger disappeared from his palm. "They'll be here soon." His tone made it sound as if he was offhandedly commenting on the weather instead of whatever was chasing after them.

"Must we kill them?" the boy asked, regret making his voice sound hollow.

"Do you even _know_ what is pursuing us?" D asked.

The boy listened to the sound that was now steadily growing louder for a few seconds before replying hesitantly, "Banshees?"

D didn't reply, naturally, but a greatly muffled but sarcastic voice commented, "Lovely."

Daniel riffled through his brain for information before coming to a sudden roadblock in the logic of his solution.

_Banshees aren't supposed to be in the northwestern sectors_, he thought. _What are they doing this far out?_ Suddenly, a soft voice jolted him from his musings.

"How acute is your sense of touch and smell?"

After hemming and hawing for a bit, the boy replied, "I can tell some terrain by touch and identify most things by smell, if that's what you're asking."

D looked behind them and then quickly turned to Daniel.

"Cover your ears," was all he said before leaping off his horse and running towards a few grotesquely mutilated figures.

The boy gripped his horse with his legs tighter before completely covering his ears. With no sound or vibrations to base anything off of, Daniel had no idea what ensued in the darkness of his blindness. Occasionally, a faint shrieking noise escaped through a crack in his fingers, sending the boy reeling with nausea and disorientation.

The shrieks steadily became louder and no matter what the young dhampir tried, the cries of what was probably the sole remaining banshee still reached his eardrums. Unable to stand the pain and wait for his father to take action, the boy grabbed the dagger he was recently given and hurled it towards the source of the noise, risking further damage by uncovering one of his ears. Whether the target hit its mark or not, Daniel never knew as almost immediately after throwing the blade, he fell off his horse and tumbled to the ground, spraying sand all around him. Covering his right ear once more, the boy lay there motionless, waiting for the pain to recede to a dull throbbing.

Something red seeped out from between his fingers—blood. The cry of the banshee had ruptured his ear drum.

Someone lightly tapped him on his shoulder before he felt vibrations from the ground due to the stomp of that someone's foot. The outline that Daniel's senses conjured was faint, but the person's identity was clear—D.

**V**

Neither grain of sand nor drop of blood marred the Hunter's countenance. He turned around to look at the fallen banshee and he had to wonder if the boy had meant to stab the creature in its throat. Targeting something with half his senses shut down was something even D had trouble with.

The two dhampirs were motionless for a few long minutes, before Daniel had uncovered his ears, his ruptured ear drum already fully-healed.

After coughing some sand out of his lungs, he asked the Hunter in his hoarse voice, "What were banshees doing this far out?"

D looked back at the carnage he had caused—corpses torn open, some with their throats ripped out, others having their cracked and broken ribs jutting out from their own chests.

"They probably became lost in the desert," D replied, his eyes still as cold and distant as ever. "They must have been feeding off of the unfortunate travelers that wander through these dunes."

Daniel picked himself up off the ground and dusted himself off, wiping his bloody hand on his faded jeans. Lifting his head up once again, the young dhampir nearly lost his nerve, the smell of blood and gore hanging heavily in the air. Deep in the pit of his stomach, the boy was starting to feel ill. He walked back to his mount on unsteady legs, D placing the dagger back into his horse's saddlebag.

Wheeling his horse around, the Hunter rode off the same way he had come at a brisk trot, his ears informing him of the fact that Daniel was not too far behind though he was still coughing.

_Are you headed towards the town of Brahman?_ the boy's voice asked soundlessly, his query echoing throughout the Hunter's mind.

_So you've already recognized that the desert has flipped itself around?_ D replied with his thoughts.

_I have. Why has it rotated, though? Is this the sentient desert I've been hearing about?_

_No, that desert learned its lesson four years ago._

_So this is akin to the Living Mountain in Rixken?_

_Yes._

D looked up and out into the distance, his eyes clearly seeing through the clouds of sand that were buffeting them. He remained focused on a certain point for a few seconds before saying indifferently, "Ready yourself."

The boy raised his head before feeling a large shockwave spread throughout the ground. Before the two was a giant wave of sand that could be likened to a tsunami, steadily mounting in roaring tides.

**Author's Note: As always, this story may still have some typos I might have skipped over in my self-revision as this has not yet been seen by my beta-reader. Constructive criticism is encouraged and very much appreciated.**


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